Strawberry Panic: The Story of Kagome and Chiyo
by DachDerain
Summary: Kagome has a gift; she can see the secrets hidden in other peoples' hearts. What happens when she discovers that she is not alone on Astraea Hill in possessing such a gift, or even the most knowledgeable and skilled at employing it?


The Story Of Kagome And Chiyo

By Joe Dees

Kagome had always had the ability to see into peoples' hearts, just like her mother and her late grandmother before her, and their mothers far before them. No one in her family knew when it began. But it was always passed down, from mother to eldest daughter, and there was always a marriage before the eighteenth year had passed, and there was always an eldest daughter, and she was always the firstborn child, born before the twentieth year. That's just the way that it was, and had always been. She didn't consider the ability to be either an boon or an encumbrance, and was barely aware when she practiced it; it was simply always there, like the clear water in which fish swam without much noticing it. And everyone in her tiny village knew, and in the surrounding countryside, and came to them with whatever offerings they could afford when they needed answers, and could not see deep enough into themselves to find them. It was their family calling, the calling of the Cunning Women, the Balmers of Hearts and the Soothers of Souls, and they were expected to fulfill it. The only people they could not see into were each other.

And Kagome was very grateful for that selective blindness, for she knew something about herself, something she wanted no one else in her family to know. There could be no marriage in her future. That was not the direction of her desires, and she had known this since she was very young. But keeping such a tradition-dooming secret from her family had been weighing heavily on her, as had her guilt and shame that such a great good thing would end with her, so when one of the offerings was a scholarship to attend the all-girls Lulim school in faraway Astraea Hill, it was like manna had fallen from a kind and pitying Heaven.

Her mother had been against her accepting the scholarship, and had wanted instead to bestow it on some other daughter of the village. But Kagome had been insistent and persuasive; she had told her mother that new days were dawning, and the wider world was finding its way into their village, and education in its ways would be essential to their practice in the future. And so she found herself at Astraea Hill, with her childhood teddy bear Percival in tow, because she could not bring a live animal companion with her for a familiar. Too bad; familiars were useful, because you could send them places to do things, and see through their eyes, hear through their ears. And she told no one of her family's tradition - but there was no way for her to hide her ability, because she couldn't bear not to help the people around her when she could. It was just the way she was. The idea of such a refusal had never even occurred to her. She made it somewhat easier on herself by adopting an innocent and childish persona. But no one could remain a child inside after seeing all that Kagome had seen, even in her short life.

She had been pleasantly surprised to find that several couples on Astraea Hill shared the kind of relationship in line with her own attractions, and that others there desired it. She felt no need to pursue such a relationship herself, but it comforted her to at least not feel so different in that way, too. But no matter what kind of form love takes, there always will occur the pains of rejection or loss or betrayal or unrequital, and Kagome did what she could to ease those pains wherever she found them.

Now, Kagome was sitting on a bench in the shade beside the central courtyard, pondering about poor Shizuma, distressed because she could not do more for her. Her calling was the balming of hearts; she had no skills in the healing of bodies. The most that she could do was to try to see if there were any opportunities to dampen the ripples of pain that would inevitably spread outward. She doubted if she could be of much assistance to Miyuki, who she was certain would return, or of much further use to Nagisa. Nor could she see anything she could do to lessen the pain Tamao would suffer from having to witness Nagisa's agony. She had the feeling that they would all care for and comfort each other anyway. But maybe she could somehow help Nagisa's smitten room keeper Chiyo…

Kagome came back to herself with a start, and realized that Chiyo was sitting on the bench across the courtyard from her, and that she had been staring at her for some time…and that Chiyo was gazing back at her. Reflexively, without even thinking, Kagome slightly unfocused her vision, so that her sight lines met behind Chiyo's eyes, and entered. She was surprised to discover that Chiyo's infatuation with Nagisa had dissipated; Chiyo still cared deeply for her, but it was now in a concerned little sister sort of way. She was further surprised to realize that she had she had been looking in on Chiyo off and on for some time now, without even thinking about it, and that she had long been subliminally aware that this dissipation was an ongoing process. Chiyo no longer dreamed of a future with Nagisa; she had accepted the fact that her love for Shizuma was unwavering. But would that change, Kagome wondered, once Shizuma was gone? And why had she felt strangely cheered that Chiyo was no longer besotted by Nagisa, and was now feeling vaguely unsettled by the idea that it might happen again?

"No it won't, Kagome," Chiyo's voice sounded clearly inside her head!

Kagome gasped, as she noticed that Chiyo's gaze was also widely cast, and was meeting inside her _own _head! And she could sense that Chiyo was surprised as well, but only a bit, and was mainly feeling pleased. "Chiyo? But how - ?" she flailed. And then a flood of words came to her.

"Wow, it works! Apparently when we both look inside each other at the same time, we can talk this way. It's a surprise to me, too. We can't do it within _my _family, either. But I was hoping that between families, it was possible, just as it is possible, as I discovered with you, to see into another outside one's own family who has the ability. I've been waiting for quite a while for the right time to try it with you, and this seemed like as good a time as any. And before you ask, I thought my family was the only one of its kind, too, until I stumbled upon you, and yes, I was as stunned as you are now. Later we can think about searching for other families like ours; if there are two, there may be more. Now, though, let's go somewhere where we can talk like this without arousing notice. People will see us staring. And I have _so _much I want to say to you!"

They sat across from each other on the soft grass underneath Shizuma's tree, and entered each other again. The first question was Kagome's. "Why _won't _Shizuma's passing make a difference for you with Nagisa?"

"Hmm; _that's_ interesting," Chiyo mused. "You just found out that there is another family like _yours_, and that we can do _this, _and yet your first question is about _that. _But for two reasons. First of all, Nagisa will not turn to me; she will turn to Tamao. And Shizuma will help her with that."

"How could you _know_ such things," Kagome persisted.

"Because I'm much closer to them than you. I'm their room keeper, after all. And that means I see more of Shizuma, too. Plus, I've been looking into you for some time, as you have with me, and know what you know about them."

"But I haven't seen any of this knowledge inside you. In fact, I hadn't even seen that you had the ability!" Kagome stated, perplexed.

"That's because I've kept it hidden from you," Chiyo answered.

"But how?" Kagome asked, then thought to herself, "Wow; Chiyo is _scary!_"

Chiyo's chuckle bubbled up from inside Kagome. "_That's _what people think about _you!_ As you well know. And that's because you've shown yourself while helping people, and I haven't. There's been no need; you've been doing it all _for_ me - and quite well, I might add. And _how_ have I hidden things from you? _You _taught me how. I just figured out and copied how you've been hiding things from yourself."

"_Me?_" Kagome's mind whirled like a pinwheel in a gale. "_What _things have I hidden from myself? And _how?_"

"It's easier to show than to tell," Chiyo answered. "Just look into yourself through me." And amazingly, Kagome found that she could. She followed her gaze into Chiyo, then followed Chiyo's gaze back into herself, and it went to some place inside her that Kagome never looked into; some place that she had been avoiding without realizing it. But now she looked there, and saw, and knew, and was thunderstruck. She _loved _Chiyo! And she had known that fact for some time, without admitting it to herself.

"Yes, you do," Chiyo said within her. "I've known for some time now, too. I found out when I took a look into you after you offered me Percival's seat at the Etoile election. I'd known about your ability for some time, but had always just looked into you for information, and never consciously peered into your feelings before. And now return back inside me, and I'll show you what I've been hiding from _you._"

Kagome returned along Chiyo's gaze to within her, and suddenly noticed a place there that she had not noticed before. Peering inside, she saw everything that Chiyo had told her - and something she had not.

"You love me, too," an awed Kagome said.

"Yes, darling. Also for some time now. I'm just like you that way, too, as if you didn't know from my past infatuation with Nagisa. That's why we've been looking inside each other so much; because we're in love. Once I saw what a beautiful person you are inside, I couldn't help _but _love you. I didn't let you see my love before because I didn't want to scare you away. I had to show you, or have you find out for yourself, that you loved me first. And that's the second reason Shizuma's approaching passing will not change my feelings for Nagisa - my love for you. We are kindred spirits, you and I; closer to each other than any two others here could _ever_ be. And you don't have to feel guilty any more about ending your family's tradition - probably the reason you hid your love for me from yourself in the first place; to put off facing that final step. Take a look at my family's history and see why."

Kagome looked. And saw. Twice in Chiyo's family in the last three hundred years, unmarried women with the ability had given virgin births to daughters before their twentieth year. "I'm betting that happens in your line, too," Chiyo said, "which is why there's the pressure in your family to marry by the time you're eighteen to avoid public scandal. The Greeks called it parthenogenesis; it's the legendary capacity for some women to give birth to a girl without involving a man. It must be genetically connected to the ability, somehow; an evolutionary way of ensuring that it passes on. I will have a daughter that will keep my family tradition going. And so will you, as well, for yours."

Kagome let out both a mental and a physical sigh of relief. "_That's _a load off my mind," she said. Kagome made a mental note to begin a tradition of recordkeeping in her family. "And I have a pretty good idea where we'll send them to school." They smiled inside each other. "But _now _what do we do?" Kagome wondered.

"We'll become a couple, of course," Chiyo answered, "and I'll arrange to be transferred to Lulim, so we can be closer to each other.. We also" - with a mental grin - "need to gradually stop baby talking everyone and start showing them some leadership skills. We're going to make a great Etoile, my love. Its about time that Lulim had one, and we'll be able to help people so much more from there. I'll show you some nifty tricks, too; for instance, you can do more than look and listen inside people. You can whisper ideas inside peoples' heads, or picture images there, and they'll think that they're their own. Unlike your family, mine actually has mother-daughter instruction in these sorts of things." Chiyo paused while Kagome absorbed these revelations and decided to also begin mother-daughter instruction in her own family, then continued. "You did the right thing for Nagisa, by the way; once her cheery façade was exposed and shattered, the rest of her friends could see that she had remained in deep pain and despair over Shizuma that whole time, and see how much she needed our support, and we all came together to provide it. Also, don't worry too much about the people surrounding Shizuma. A lot of them share a more widely held but limited skill my family calls love sight, and they see each other's needs and meet them as they arise. Oh, and one other thing - a special treat for you," Chiyo added. "You know that yellow-eyed feral black cat that roams the Strawberry Dorm halls at night? She's mine. I'll hook you up and we can share her."

Kagome marveled at the thought and planning that Chiyo had put into all of this, and at the breadth and depth of her knowledge and skills. "Whoa! And people think _I'm _scary! The _scariest _people are the ones you don't even _know _about," she chortled, and Chiyo laughed with her. But a troubling thought suddenly occurred to Kagome: what might Chiyo have placed inside of _her?_ Even that enormous love she felt for her…?

"No, my dear, Kagome," came Chiyo's answer. "I would _never _do that to someone. Not even to Nagisa. Like I told you; I didn't _create _your love for me, I _discovered _it. You fell in love with me all on your own, just as I did with you." And Kagome looked inside both of them, and saw that it was true.

Then they both pulled back so they could gaze into each other's eyes rather than through them as they shared their first kiss. And then shared more.

Later, Kagome smirked and languidly mussed Chiyo's hair. "What was with that 'baby talking' crack, by the way, sweet Chiyo? You've been doing the childish thing, too. That opening klutz act you pulled at the beginning of your room keeper assignment was the talk of the dorm!" "Well," Chiyo shamefacedly admitted, "_some _of that was real. In fact, a _lot_ of it was. I _was, _after all, genuinely smitten with Nagisa, and I _still _really care about her. You can't help _but _care about Nagisa; she has that kind of heart. She will always be onee-sama to me - and to you, too. But what about _you? _It was embarrassing the way you trotted everyone around searching for Nagisa's umbrella! "Not totally my intention," Kagome ruefully replied. "It was just a game at first, because _of course _I knew who Nagisa was; after all, by then, who _didn't?_ And she _is _endearing; it's easy to see why you fell for her. And yes, I'll always care about her, too. But _no _one knew where the umbrella went after it disappeared from the library counter where Kizuna absentmindedly left it. Even Yaya and Hikari, who borrowed it from there, didn't know it was hers. I started worrying that I'd _never _get it back to her. I sure learned a lesson on _that _one!"

"I guess we've both had quite a learning curve at Astraea Hill," Chiyo mused. "And I'm sure it's far from over. But in both of those cases, we ended up becoming known and liked more. They couldn't have worked out better if they were planned for that. And you were a huge success as Romeo in the underclass play. Remon and Kizuna don't plan to run for Etoile, and neither do Yaya and Tsubome. They're happy enough with the Lulim presidency and the Spica Saintly Chorus, and with each other. I'm sure they'd support us. If we can just convince people of our competence, we should have no problem at all being elected. But not next year. We'll still be too young. And we have much work to do in the meantime. Poor Shizuma will have been gone for some time by then, so my guess is that Tamao and Nagisa will run again, and win this time. They'll be the best qualified for the job, and it's what everybody will want to see. But by year after next, when they graduate, we should be ready. And we can even get re-elected." "You're really obsessed with us becoming the Etoile, aren't you, Chiyo, my dear" Kagome teased. "Is that the _only _reason you approached me? Because you couldn't become the Etoile with Nagisa?" She chuckled at Chiyo's reproving glare. "Well, it's been your dream, not mine. But I see your point about it being the ideal position from which to help people here." Kagome paused, then continued. "You seem to get obsessed with a _lot of things, Chiyo. With Nagisa, with becoming the Etoile, with helping people…just please keep being as obsessed with me as I am with you." Kagome's eyes glowed as she tenderly cradled Chiyo's face in her palms. "Whether or not the obsession with helping people comes with the ability or it's just the way you are, I'm thrilled to see that you share it with me, and I'm definitely in the race with you." "Yes you are, my darling Kagome," Chiyo breathed. "Side by side, in perfect step, we will run this race together. And not just for Etoile. For the rest of the way." And their lips came together once again._


End file.
